LIGHT guiding

Lucie and Tom tied the knot at Berwick Lodge in April 2022

Images courtesy of Venetia Norrington Photography

Lucie and Tom met as teenagers while working in B&Q at the weekends. Tom was in the year above Lucie at school, so while they were aware of each other, they’d never formally met. The pair embarked on a relationship the following year, but both still had plenty of growing up to do and parted two years later. Happily, the world of academia brought them together again though, when they bumped into each other at their university’s freshers week. One short year later the relationship was back on and they’ve been together ever since.

Tom proposed to Lucie while taking a road trip around Canada in an RV. The couple share a mutual love for the stars, so it was simply perfect when Tom got down on one knee on a clear night by a lake beneath the heavens. This is the romantic version, Lucie has the true story... “Every night of the trip had been cloudy, and it wasn’t until the last evening in Banff we had clear skies. However, we arrived at our RV site only to be told not to go out after dark due to a cougar sighting! After dinner and a couple of games of UNO, Tom decided to drive the RV down to a beautiful lake to look at the stars but when he stepped out after nightfall, I point blank refused to follow for fear of getting ripped apart by said cougar! So, I stood in the doorway waiting for him to come back and after several moments he returned to make a wonderful speech about love, and got down on one knee to propose. My response to which was: ‘Are you joking?’”

Berwick Lodge was exactly what the couple were looking for in a venue: beautiful, bright, and airy with extensive grounds. “We were looking for somewhere we could go back and visit again and again, somewhere we could make our own, and most importantly a venue that was dog friendly to ensure we could incorporate our fur baby into the day,” Lucie explains.

Join us as the bride gives us the lowdown on W-day, 15th April, 2022...

Due to postponements and changes in friends, we had someone be our something blue. As I’d already committed to dresses and make-up, I couldn’t add another bridesmaid, so this seemed like the perfect way to make her a special part of the day. She came for photos in the morning, opened gifts and drank fizz with the bridesmaids. She also did a reading during the ceremony.

I absolutely adored our ceremony, which I felt we’d made personal to us. We wrote our own vows and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room! We also had three amazing readings from people in our bridal party.

Tom knew he wanted to wear a navy suit, and his was a very smart fit. He stood out from his groomsmen with a slightly larger buttonhole. We asked the groomsmen to provide their own navy suits. They didn’t all match, but it wasn’t obvious.

I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy wedding dress shopping, so I didn’t plan the usual experience. Instead, I looked online, popped out during my lunch break and bought one. I did panic after that though, and took my sister back later to try on mine, plus two others. That was all I needed to do to know it was the one. There were a few alterations I had in mind, which developed over time, so I took it to a seamstress and created something that was truly mine.

I wasn’t too fussy about the style or colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses. However, after going shopping with my maid-of-honour, I decided on the one colour, allowing my maids to choose their style.

We had plenty of garden games between the ceremony and food and left them out for the evening, as it had been such a lovely sunny day.

The best part of our day was having our fur baby, Albie, attend. He was chaperoned by the wonderful Lynn from Waggs ‘n’ Woofs and arrived after the ceremony. He was a huge hit and our guests were queuing up to have a photo taken with him in front of our pom pom backdrop.

Our favours were seed packets as we love our garden, and wanted something people would be able to take home and use. I also entered a Bloom Gin competition during lockdown and won some miniature gin bottle favours.

Our tables were named after places we’d visited together, so I painted a large board with an outline of a world map and pinned on the seating plan.

Each table had the guests’ names, plus two photos of us together at the relevant place. I made white clay hearts as the place names, which the guests could also take home.

Our cake was iced with crisp edges and was designed to suit our colour palette.

We had lots of handmade signs dotted throughout the venue, along with wooden crates holding candles and family photos. We also had a memory candle and a large board with photos of us throughout the years.

We had a quick game of Mr & Mrs after the meal while the team were changing the room over for the evening. This was managed by our bridesmaids, who made cards for guests to fill out and they then sifted through to find the best questions.

We had a DJ in the evening, who went down a storm. We had no requests on the day as we knew we didn’t want a load of cheesy tunes, but guests were able to request a song when they sent their RSVPs

I bought Tom a dance lesson for his birthday, as I didn’t want to just shuffle awkwardly around the dancefloor. We enjoyed it so much we had a few more and pulled off a little choreographed routine, which we’d kept secret. It was a huge hit.

We went on the trip of a lifetime for our honeymoon! After not being able to go away for so long, we went all out. We were away for four weeks travelling to Singapore, New Zealand and Thailand. New Zealand really was breathtaking and we didn’t want to leave. A highlight was taking a helicopter up to the top of Mount Cook and landing on the glacier.

It’s your day, so you should plan a wedding that you want. Make it personal and don’t let others talk you into anything different! Only invite the people you want there, not because you think you have to or because someone says you should. If you don’t want to invite great auntie Jean twice removed, don’t!

LUCIE AND TOM’S

Suppliers

Venue, Beriwck Lodge, www.berwicklodge.co.uk | Photographer, Venetia Norrington Photography, www.venetianorrington.com Bride’s and bridesmaids’ dresses, Wed2B | Alterations, Abigail Westrup Bridal, https://abigailwestrupbridal.com | Hair stylist, Locks by Lisa B, www.facebook.com/LocksbyLisaB | Make-up artist, Lauren Jamie Hair & Makeup, https://laurenjamiehairandmakeup.com | Groom’s suit, T.M Lewin

Cake, Confetti Cakes, www.confetticakes.co.uk | Flowers, Flourish & Grace, https://flourishandgrace.com | Stationery, Rose & Beau Designs, www.roseandbeau.co.uk | Entertainment, The Wedding Players, www.theweddingplayers.com | Dog chaperone, Waggs ‘n’ Woofs, www.waggs-n-woofs.co.uk | First dance choreographer, Kelsall Choreo, www.kelsallchoreo.com

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